According to Wikipedia, Rennet is a natural complex of enzymes that is produce in the mammalian stomach for purposes of mild digestion. Rennet is often used in the production of cheese. It contains many enzymes, including proteolytic enzyme (protease) that coagulates milk and causes it to separate into solids known as curds and liquid known as whey. The active enzyme in rennet is called chymosin or renin but there is alos other important enzymes in Rennet.
According to wisegeek.com, Rennet is an extract from the fourth stomach of young ruminants, such as cows, goats, and sheep. This extract contains a number of enzymes which are designed to help these animals digest their mother's milk, and when added to milk, rennet will cause the milk to coagulate, forming the curds and whey which are so essential in the cheesemaking process.


Wisegeek.com also reported that there has been a great deal of mythology surrounding the history of cheesemaking, because humans have been making cheese for a very long time, and the steps involved are actually fairly complicated. The stomachs of ruminants have historically been used to make bags and sacks, and food historians theorize that someone must have stored milk in one a bit too long, allowing it to curdle, and someone thought of turning the curdled milk into a food product. Modern rennet is created through an extraction process which yields neat, dry tablets or a liquid which is very easy to work with. Wisegeek.com also reported that Several plants produce natural rennet compounds, as do some microbes, and these non-animal sources of rennet can be found for sale in stores which cater to vegetarians, and in shops which produce kosher dairy products. If you are a vegetarian, you may want to be aware that cheesemakers are not required to disclose the source of their rennet, so unless a cheese is specifically labeled as vegetarian, it may contain rennet. Under Jewish dietary laws, milk and meat cannot be mixed together, so cheese which is certified as kosher or pareve will not contain rennet. It is also possible to find cheeses which have been coagulated with acids like lemon juice; paneer is one such cheese.

Cheeses represent a traditional way of preserving a perishable foodstuff, milk. Cheese is made by addition of milk to a starter culture of lactic acid bacteria whic acidify the milk to about pH 5.5. In addition, milk clotting enzymes called rennet are added, resulting in a coagulated protein gel trapping other proteins and fat. Traditionally the rennet used is a preparation of several enzymes isolated from calf stomach. Modern cheeses making, however, increasingly relies upon microbial sources of the most important enzyme, the protease chymosin. This is now produced by recombinant micro-organisms.

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